Author Topic: [3.5] Monk fighting styles inspired by real martial arts  (Read 2736 times)

Offline Prime32

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[3.5] Monk fighting styles inspired by real martial arts
« on: November 05, 2011, 10:33:33 PM »
I was looking up some stuff on Tai Chi and started thinking about ways to base monk abilities on different martial arts. I'm not exactly an expert, so I'd appreciate any suggestions. Mostly I'm just going by Wikipedia and a few observations.

General monk stuff:
  • Full BAB
  • As a swift action, can gain a bonus to any ability score equal to half their monk level plus their Wis modifier for 1 round.
  • Can walk on vertical surfaces at lv3, water at lv4, and air at lv5, as long as they end their movement solidly supported. At double these levels (6, 8 and 10) they may use these abilities for indefinite periods.



Taijiquan (Tai Chi, "Waterbending")
  • Successive attacks as part of a full attack take cumulative -4 penalties rather than -5 (eg. a 20th level monk could attack at +20/+16/+12/+8). Possibly improves to -3 penalties (+20/+17/+14/+11)
  • You gain Combat Reflexes as a bonus feat, and a +4 bonus to AC against attacks of opportunity.
  • Whenever you strike an opponent they take a cumulative -1 penalty to attack rolls, AC and Reflex saves for 1 round. Or maybe a Dex penalty.
  • Attacking you and missing provokes an attack of opportunity.
  • Whenever you take the total defense action, fight defensively, or use Combat Expertise, you gain an additional number of attacks of opportunity for the round equal to the bonus to AC.

Baguazhang (Eight Trigram Fist, "Airbending" + "Gentle Fist")
  • Whenever you move directly from one of an opponent's threatened squares to another, your movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity from that opponent. While you threaten a creature your allies (including you) may treat every square in which you have been in the last round as if it contained an ally for the purposes of flanking that creature.
  • You gain Evasive Reflexes as a bonus feat, and you may always take a 5ft step on your turn even if you have already moved.
  • After each 5ft of movement you gain a cumulative +1 bonus on attack rolls against any creature you threatened before the start of your movement, as well as on rolls made for special attacks like trip and bull rush. This benefit lasts for 1 round. For instance, if a monk starting between an orc and an ogre travelled 30ft while threatening the ogre at every point, he would gain a +6 bonus on his next attack against the ogre and a +1 bonus on his next attack against the orc.
  • If the path of your movement for the round encloses one or more areas, you gain 20% concealment against any creatures in those areas for 1 round.
  • If you are within 10ft of a position where something could provide you cover, it provides you cover. You may even use an attacker as cover against their own attack.

Xingyiquan
  • For every two attacks with which you strike a creature in a round, you may force them back 5ft. You may then move 5ft forward if you wish. This movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity for either character.
  • Whenever you deal damage to an opponent, that opponent takes a penalty on damage rolls for 1 round equal to half the damage taken. If you deal damage to an enemy multiple times in a round only the highest value is used.
  • You may make a full attack as part of a charge.
  • You gain a bonus to AC and saves against any creature equal to the number of times you have attacked them in this round, whether or not these attacks were successful.


I figure these abilities are sorted into order of strength, and you gain abilities from one school interwoven with lower-level abilities from others.